Hello all. I've always lingered around the forums but never bit the bullet until now. I would like to mod my Optiplex case but have a few queries.
First of all here is an image of what I've already done.
(Full Size)
As you can see I removed the massive hard drive and replaced it with a 2.5" HDD in the out of use floppy drive area. This has significantly improved cooling. Second I reversed the front CPU fan, hence the direction of the Airflow. Since these photos were taken I've added a Low Profile AMD HD 7750 which has actually helped cooling a little with it's fan. However what I'd like to do as seen here is cut off the top of the plastic shroud and put an intake fan over the top of it. Unsure if that would work I was wondering if anyone here would have any input about the idea? My second idea - for which I've yet to make a terrible diagram as I have with that one - was to add the mini-tower heatsink (Dell D9729) as it will fit the BTX LGA 775 socket, cutting a hole to let it out and give it a sort of hot rod look, then mod a 120mm fan by splicing the wires and connecting the 5-pin 4 wire proprietary fan connector and plugging it into the optional HDD header. Leaving the 80mm fan up front exhaust, making a sort of uneven push pull setup.Finally,
I noticed the the air coming out of the PSU and into the case is quite warm, which I can't imagine helps with cooling the CPU, I did some wire management to clear the fan opening on the PSU as it is usually covered by wires but I wasn't sure if I could dremel some slot vents in above it or if it would mess with airflow too much?
Cheers for any input even if it's just, "you're an idiot".
But experimenting is what I bought this PC for.